The Blackboard of My Soul

The sum and total of my life

is written by anyone

who ever held a piece of chalk.

Teachers writing

in deliberate blocks

Elementary and high school friends

scratchings faint

Grown-up friends

cursive and solid

My love

tentative and sure

Siblings

baby printing to adult scriblings

My mother

Of all those who have written

on the blackboard of my life

hers is the delicate script

most often seen.

The first person who wrote on my heart.

hopeful pink

My constant and my support

Never wavering, always with me.

strong blue and solid white.

My personification of how to live.

Her words

such a constant in the beginning

less frequent as years passed

But always there, threading themselves

around all the other words

written on my life.

And there to be referenced again

when I look at the blackboard of my soul.

05/12/01 - For my mother

Beth